THE EFFECT OF PRODUCT PLACEMENT ON CONSUMER INTERESTS

IN MEDIATION BY BRAND AWARENESS

(Study on Product Gery Saluut Malkist the SCTV Cinta Suci SCTV in Kauman Ngoro
Jombang)

ABSTRACT

This research is motivated at this time a lot of product advertisements placed in a

soap opera. The test of this study is to determine the effect of product placement
on consumer buying interest and brand awareness as a mediating variable. The
sample in this study was 100 respondents loyal viewers of the soap opera holy
SCTV in the village of Kauman Ngoro Jombang. The instruments in this study
used a questionnaire and were analyzed using SEM-PLS analysis. The results of
this study indicate that product placement can significantly influence consumer
purchase interest and brand awareness is a partial mediator between product
placement and buying interest of CintaSuci soap opera audience on SCTV.

Keywords: Product Placement, Brand Awareness, and Purchase Interest

1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the development and change of technology is increasing rapidly.
One of them is the development of communication technology. In today's society,
life always depends on the mass media. Almost all human activities are always
nothing that does not depend on technology. This makes it no longer difficult for
business people to be able to introduce the results of their products. One that is
done by marketers to introduce their products is to use advertising as a
promotional medium. Ads that are made more creative can make an advertisement
a message to consumers and hope consumers are interested in buying products.
One of the aims of an advertisement is to influence consumers to buy a product.
Intention is a form of real thought that means the initial movement of the
customer's plan to buy a product or service within a certain time period
(Schiffman & Kanuk, 2000). Consumer purchase intentions are closely related to
motives for using and buying certain products or services. Different motives,
starting from motives that are influenced by needs, some that are influenced by
the environment, some are influenced by one's own lifestyle (Zulganef & Alda
Ramadhika, 2014).

There are several ways carried out by marketers as an advertising

medium, whether through television, radio, magazines, tabloids or newspapers. Of
the several media used for advertising media, television is still one of the few
media that are of interest to marketers as advertising media. This can be seen
when watching a television program when entering a pause, many advertisements
appear. Television media is a media that is enjoyed and enjoyed by the people of
Indonesia almost every day. By presenting various programs that can attract the
attention of their viewers, there are not many people who take the time every day
to watch television. According to the results of research from Nielsen on
Indonesian people's consumption of digital media and conventional media now
complement each other. It's just that each generation is different. These results can
be strengthened in table 1.1

Table 1 Nielsen data for 2018

NO Generation Z Millennial Generation Generation X
(10-19 years old) (20-34 years old) (35-49 years old)

1. Television 97 % Television 96 % Television 97 %

2. Internet 50 % Internet 58 % Radio 37 %

3. Radio 33 % Internet 33 %

4. Paid television 7 %

5. Print media 4 %

Source: (Nielsen, 2018)

From the data above, television media is still the main media consumed by
many Indonesians even though it is divided into several generations. Nowadays,
advertisements on television have been rife by businesses to promote their
products. This is done because it looks at the phenomenon that exists today if
television programs are shorter compared to the adverts that are approximately 10
minutes each pause and contain about 15-20 advertisements. The various
advertisement shows during the soap opera program break, ranging from
advertisements for drinks, food, to household furniture advertisements.
The reality now, with so many advertisements on television makes the
audience feel bored. Many people if the program of interest has entered a
commercial break, the public prefers to move other television channels when the
advertisement is displayed. This makes advertising in the current television
program commercial breaks less effective for business people to market their
products. Product placements can be one of the ways that businesses can choose
to promote their products. Product placement is a way to promote a product by
placing it on a television show as if it were part of the program, and most of the
viewers of the event did not realize that they had witnessed part of one of the
promotional tools (Zulganef; Ramadhika, Alda, 2014 ).
Brand awareness also acts as an important factor in determining consumer
buying interest, and a brand will accumulate in the minds of consumers who in
turn will influence the decision to buy. From this opinion it can be concluded that
brand awareness is an initial stage of consumers which will influence the intention
to buy a product. Promotion is the goal of brand awareness. Product placement in
a soap opera show aims to make viewers have a high brand awareness of a
product, and later it will lead to the buying process.

Purchase Interest

Interest is a form of real thought that is the initial movement of consumers'

plans to buy products or services during a certain period of time. Purchase Interest
is the tendency of consumers to buy brands or take actions related to purchases
based on the likelihood of consumers that consumers will make purchases
(Dwiantara, 2018 ).
According to Nurpratama (2014), buying interest arises when someone feels
very interested in various information about products obtained through
advertisements. and can be measured through the following indicators:

1. Attention
Is an initial step needed by consumers in assessing a product or service.
2. Interest
Interest in buying potential customers will arise after obtaining information
about a product and will observe a product or service.
3. Desire
Consumers will ponder and discuss the reasons for wanting to buy the
product or service offered. Consumers must develop and not only be
interested in the product. This phase is marked by the strong desire of
consumers who have the potential to buy and try the product.
4. Actions
Consumers make passive choices from an offer. At that time, prospective
consumers who have visited the place of the product or service sold, will
buy and use the product offered with a degree of stability.
Product Placement
Product placement is one of the ways that business people often do to market their
products. Product placement is a way to promote a product by placing it on a
television show as if it were part of the program, and most of the viewers of the
event did not realize that the audience had witnessed part of one of the
promotional tools (Zulganef & Alda Ramadhika, 2014).
From some of the above opinions it can be concluded that product
placement is one way to promote a product by placing it on a television show as if
it is included in the soap opera section. According to Nurpratama (2014), the
product placement strategy is the placement of brand names, products, product
packaging, symbols or logos in films, television programs, or other cellular media
to increase viewer memory for certain brands. According to Russel (1998), there
are three important dimensions in product placement, namely:
1. Visual dimention
Display a product brand on a screen or what is called a screen placement.
2. Auditory dimention
Mention of a product brand in a dialogue or what is called script placement.
3. Connection dimention plot (PCD)
Integration of product brand placement in a film.
Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is a cognitive process that will ultimately affect consumer

intentions (conative) to make purchases (Zulganef & AldaRamadhika). According
to Aaker (1991: 61) brand awareness is an ability of consumers to recognize or
recall that they are part of a particular product category. Brand awareness requires
a broad reach (continuum raging) of the uncertain feeling that certain brands have
been known before, so consumers believe that the product is the only one in the
product group. Consumers can be represented in different levels of brand
awareness as shown in the following pyramid.
 Source: Aaker (1991)

Figure 1: Brand Awareness Pyramid

The ability of consumers to remember and recognize a product brand

depends on the level of communication or customer perception of the product
brand being promoted. The following is an explanation of the level of brand
awareness according to Aaker (1991):
1. Unaware of brand
At this level, consumers are doubtful or not sure whether they have
identified the brands that have been mentioned or not. Consumers are also
unaware of the presence of these brands.
2. Brand recognition
At this level the consumer can identify the brand mentioned. Consumers
already know the brand of a product, but still need tools to remember. The
impact of brand awareness is very important when someone is at the point
of sale. To increase brand awareness, brand names must be different and
unusual.
3. Brand recall
At this level consumers can remember the brand without being given a
stimulus. Remembering a brand is based on a person's request to mention a
particular brand name in the product category.

4. Top of mind
At this level consumers remember the brand that first appeared when it
came to the product category in a certain position.

Pengembangan Hipotesis
The hypotheses in this study are:
 1. The better the product placement in the Cinta Suci soap opera, the more
positive the consumer's buying interest will be.
2. The better the product placement in the soap opera Cinta Suci, the more
positive the brand awareness of consumers.
3. The better brand awareness of consumers, the higher buying interest of
consumers.
4. Brand Awararenes mediates between product placement and consumer
buying interest

2. RESEARCH METHOD

Research design

This type of research is explanatory research (explanatory research) which is

research conducted to explain the factors that cause a problem, or better known as
an explanatory research on the effects caused by supporting factors (Sugiyono,
Business Research Methods, 2014). By using a Likert measurement scale, the
method of data collection is done by questionnaire and documentation. The
analysis technique in this study uses Structual Equation Modeling (SEM)
analysis. The population and sample of this study are loyal viewers of Cinta Suci
SCTV soap operas, for sampling, in this study using purposive sampling
technique.

Deskripsi Responden
The description that sees the product placement in the CintaSuci SCTV soap
opera is as follows: 100 respondents consisted of 44 men and 66 women. Most
respondents had age over 30 years and 61 people and those under 30 years were
39 years old. Most of the respondents were still students, totaling 53 people, 29
private employees and 18 others. The income level of most respondents has
income of 500,000 - 1,000,000, namely 93 people, and those who have an income
of 1,000,000 - 2,000,000 are 4 people.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan Partial Least Square (PLS) versi0.5

Convergent Validity
Table 2 Combined Loading

Indicator Loading factor P value

X1.1 0.620 <0.001

X1.2 0.750 <0.001

X1.4 0.503 <0.001

X1.6 0.680 <0.001

Z1.1 0.760 <0.001

Z1.2 0.760 <0.001

Y1.1 0.642 <0.001

Y1.2 0.755 <0.001

Y1.3 0.587 <0.001

Y1.4 0.540 <0.001

Y1.6 0.705 <0.001

Y1.8 0.534 <0.001

Source: Primary data processed (2019)

Based on table 2 the results of combined loadings data processing obtained a load value of “P“
value < 0.05, thus indicating that convergent validity is acceptable.

Descriminant Validity
Table 3 Square Root of AVE’s

X Z Y
X 0,645 0.129 0.323

Z 0.129 0.760 0.145

Y 0.0,326 0.143 0.635

Source: Primary data processed (2019)

 From table 3 the results of processing the value of the root of AVE can be
obtained that each variable is greater than the correlation between latent variables
in the same column, thus indicating that discriminate validity is acceptable.

Composite Reliability

Table 4 Composite Reliability and Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient

Variabel Composite reliability coefficient Cronbach’s alpha coefficient

X 0.736 0.522

Z 0.732 0.268

Y 0.800 0.699

Source: Primary data processed (2019)

Based on table 4 From the results of processing the composite reliability

coefficient data gets a value of more than 0.7, so that composite reliability can be
accepted. As for the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the variables X and Y, the
values are more than 0.5, so they are accepted. The variable Z gets a value less
than 0.5 so it is rejected.

Hypothesis testing
Based on the hypothesis test that has been carried out on 100 respondents, it
can be seen the following hypothesis:
1.Product placement has a significant effect on brand awareness.
2.Product placement has a significant effect on consumer buying interest.
3.Brand awareness has no significant effect on buying interest

Mediation Test
 To see the mediation model in the model can be seen from the P-value of
direct effects for paths with two segments with the provision of P-value ≤ 0.05
(alpha 5%).

Table 5 Direct Effect For parts with Two Segments and P value of indirect effects for parts
with two segments
Criteria Variable X Z Y

Indirect Effect For parths WithTwo X

Segment
Z
Y 0.024
P value of indirect effect for parths X
withtwo segment
Z
Y 0,365
Source: Primary data processed (2019)

Based on table 5, the indirect effect mediation test for parths with two segments
and P value of indirect effect for parths with two segments , it can be seen the following
hypothesis:
product placement can significantly influence buying interest but brand
awareness cannot mediate the relationship between the two variables .
Based on Figure 4.1 it can be seen that the relationship of product placement
with brand awareness has a value = 0.05 which means it has a significant
influence. Also shown in the picture above is the P-value of 0.06 which is greater
than 0.05, which indicates the relationship between brand awareness and buying
interest has no significant effect. Furthermore, the relationship between product
placement and buying interest has a value <0.01, so it is proven to have a
significant effect.

Discussion
The Effect of Product Placement on Brand Awareness
Product placement is a way to increase product or service advertisements by
showing products on TV shows and creating the impression that the existence of a
product is part of a film story or television show (Belch and Belch, 2012). Product
placement in the CintaSuci SCTV soap opera was able to make viewers watching
the soap opera aware of Gerry Malkist product advertisements.
 The Promotion of Gery Malkis product advertisements placed in the Cinta
Suci SCTV soap opera is considered capable of creating a top of mind in its
audience. This can happen because the audience of the soap opera Cinta Suci
SCTV has a strong brand awareness of the products displayed. The results of this
study reinforce research conducted by Zulganef (2014) which states that the
purpose of product placement is to make the audience have a strong brand
awareness of a product and Harris and Brahmana (2016) research which shows
that product placement has an impact on brand awareness.

The Effect of Product Placement Against Interest in Purchases

Product Placement is a way to improve product or service advertisements by
showing products on TV shows and creating the impression that the existence of a
product is part of a film story or television show (Belch and Belch, 2012).
Placement of products in the Cinta Suci SCTV soap opera is considered to be able
to generate interest, this is motivated by the mention of the Gery Malkist product
brand by soap opera players very clearly, so as to make viewers pay attention to
the advertised product. This covert ad will be perceived by viewers which will
arouse the interest of soap opera viewers to find information about the product.
The search for this information eventually led to the desire to purchase advertised
products. This flow is in accordance with what was stated by Nur Pratama (2014)
regarding indicators of buying interest. The results of this study are in line with
research conducted by Irfana (2018) which states that product placement has a
positive effect on buying interest and research conducted by Harris and Brahmin
(2016) which shows that product placement will have an effect on purchase
intention.

The Influence of Brand Awareness Against Interest in Purchases

Brand awareness is an initial stage of consumers who can bring up the
intention of consumers to buy an advertised product. According to Aaker (1991:
61) brand awareness is an ability of consumers to recognize or recall that a brand
is part of a particular product category. The awareness of the audience of Cinta
Suci SCTV soap opera about the promotion of Gery Malkist product
advertisements placed in the soap opera was not able to make the soap opera
viewers interested in buying the products displayed. The inability of brand
awareness in generating interest in the product occurs because soap opera viewers
focus more on the storyline than on products placed in soap operas. In addition,
the Gery Malkist product is also not the only product placed in the Cinta Suci
soap opera, making it difficult for viewers to be able to remember and realize the
advertised product. To arouse brand awareness to create a desire to buy the
advertised product, the promotion of the product must be strong and be able to
make viewers remember the brand of a product. The results of this study
contradict the research of Kumalasari (2013) which states that brand awareness
has an impact on consumer buying interest. The results of this study are also not
in line with research by Harris and Brahmana (2016) which suggests that brand
awareness impacts on purchase intention.

The Influence of Product Placement Against Interest in Purchases Mediated by

Brand Awareness

Product placement is one way to promote a product that is placed in a soap

opera show and as if it is part of the storyline. Promotional product advertisements
placed in the soap opera Cinta Suci SCTV can and can make the audience
interested in buying.
The suitability of the product with the soap opera story is able to make the
soap opera audience understand and arouse brand awareness of Gery Malkist
products, but this brand awareness is not able to foster a desire to find information
about Gery Malkist products even more so to foster interest in buying the soap
opera audience. Thus it can be said that brand awareness is a partial mediator of
the relationship between product placement and consumer interest.

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